MARIJUANA FARMING RULES IN FLUX

Beginning last week, Colorado law mandated that medical marijuana
dispensaries grow -- or have a plan to grow -- 70 percent of their
own product, and Pitkin County officials are now evaluating how they
ought to regulate the rural pot farms linked with local shops.

Five marijuana farms are zoned for agricultural use in Pitkin County,
according to county community development director Lance Clarke.
Growers statewide were required to report themselves to local
jurisdictions by July 1, when state regulations went into effect,
along with a moratorium on new pot operations.

Later this month, Clarke and county attorney John Ely are scheduled
to meet with the Pitkin County commissioners to decide whether they
want to set up specific county-written zoning rules for marijuana, or
to proceed under state guidelines. They also have the option to ban
them outright, as several counties have.

The commissioners have until July of next year to adopt their own
rules. Otherwise they'll be bound by state regulations, which include
provisions like criminal background checks for marijuana professionals.

"We want to see if the Board of County Commissioners has any
questions about how we're currently dealing with dispensaries, grow
operations and infused products from a zoning standpoint," Clarke
said, "and whether they want any specifications."

"Infused products" include food and teas made with marijuana, and are
currently allowed to be made only in the county's business zone, at
the Aspen Airport Business Center. The county has fielded two
applications from marijuana operations there, Clarke said, one of
which has opened a shop.

The state's grow-your-own rule hasn't yet prompted any evident
enforcement from the Department of Revenue, which oversees it.

Providers, meanwhile, are attempting to toe the line of medical
marijuana laws that continue to change. On the prospect of Pitkin
County possibly writing new regulations on growing, local industry
insiders are trying to be patient, said Damien Horgan, co-owner of
Aspen's Alternative Medical Solutions.

"We're taking a wait-and-see approach," he said.

Counties and municipalities around the state have taken a smattering
of regulatory stances on medical marijuana since the industry began
booming last year. Colorado voters approved medical use of the drug
in 2000, but few shops opened until after U.S. Attorney General Eric
Holder declared a hands-off policy on state-approved pot dispensaries
in February 2009.

Five dispensaries have since opened for business in Aspen and Pitkin County.

Because of the drug's history as an illegally trafficked and grown
commodity, concerns about the medical marijuana industry largely
center on the criminal element it legitimizes, and other crimes that
grow operations may attract, including theft.

Sheriff Bob Braudis said marijuana farms may be targeted because of
the plants' value, but that his office has not fielded any reports of
pot burglary or related crime.

"It has not posed any problems for Pitkin County," he said.

The influx of legal medical use of the drug has, he said, begun to
affect illicit sale of marijuana locally, as black market dealers
have been forced to drop prices below the going rate in dispensaries.

"The traditional market has been blown out of the water," Braudis said.